A tale of two love stories

Today morning while sipping my morning concoction- news of two love stories caught my imagination. Both from different parts of the world. One was a testimony of “Triumph of personal freedom” while the other showed how executing one’s “right to freedom” may have a violent end.

One of the stories was from my beloved country while the other was from “Japan”. How badly I wanted the “Triumph of personal Freedom” story to be from my country (Though my country and its constitution ensures sweeping freedom to all its citizens so much so that there are people who can openly abuse the country and get away too- that’s another point of debate , lets drop it today!)

The story of princess Mako giving up her “royal status” to marry a commoner (as they call it) is heartening as it has the blessing of the Emperor, though one hopes she could have retained her royal status too. (I have a little bias towards Japan as people there are very gentle in their behavior ,peaceful and very proud citizens.Japan is a patriarchal society and surely they can improve a lot w.r.t. gender equality which I can talk about in another post.)

In contrast of the above story is the story below where a son-in-law is allegedly killed by his father-in-law. Obviously the alleged murderer is no king or emperor but has the audacity of sniffing out life from a human being. 

What caused him to do it:-

1. Failure to have control on his offspring’s life
2.  Just ego
3.  Lack of respect for human life
4.  Lack of compassion
5. Lack of respect for rule of law

It’s necessary to remind people that “right to life and right to freedom” are supreme and no nation can call itself modern if its citizens don’t recognize its importance. Also what surprises me is lack of outrage from the masses and general public. This incident should shock us and draw sweeping outrage and criticism from all quarters – aren’t we a secular, socialist country, etc, etc. or are they just words in the constitution. While "banning beef" stirs so much political noise why this incident is met with measured silence. Is human life is of lesser value.

I think an emperor should have have had much more at stake that the "nobody" who killed this son-in-law mercilessly and he doesn't realize he has scarred his own offspring for life- but I think those are all secondary to the alleged murderer.

I sign off with the hope that modern India showcases stories of personal liberty and its respect by fellow citizens and stories like these become a distant obscure memory

Barbarism of Crime – something endemically wrong with our society

Crime is a global phenomenon – its omnipotent and happens in varying degrees through-out the world. When one analyses crime in India and the barbarism involved in crimes against women one realizes there is something endemically wrong with our society. What can that be?

1. A dis-passionate society which is continuously running in pursuit of material achievements
2. A glaring divide between privileged and deprived citizens
3. The blatant eulogizing of material achievements
4. Lack of moral compass w.r.t. right and wrong
5. Survival and self-reliance are only priorities we learn as we grow up
6. An unequal education system where the rich will be spared as they take refuge in the private education system but the poor are left to mercy of government run schooling which varies in its quality from state to state.
   While states like Maharashtra and Gujarat have good public education system in other states its on the mercy of the people in charge.
7. Family and school are two places which infuse moral foundation in a human being if these are defunct then it all boils down to the individual. We Indians have to on a war footing ensure good basic schooling for all and a community structure which infuses the basic fabric of amiable human nature in one and all.
8. We don’t have time – I hear this from me and others as we go through the motions of life – this reminds me of a line in hindi -  “ Agar Hum waqt ko tavajoo nahi denge to ek din waqt hame chusi hui narangi ki tarah fek dega” – “If we don’t give value to time then one day time will discard us like a chewed waste” – similarly if we don’t realize today that we need to invest in a healthy society we will live to see and bear the unhealthy consequences.
9. We have to let go of the hypocrisy and provide healthy source of information to the society at large – people getting answers about their questions through movies and other non-educational sources is dangerous and detrimental to the growth of a healthy outlook.
10. 1.      We need to invest in society as a society – everything can’t be left to the government. Government can’t tell us be honorable in behavior to:-   

a.      Fellow females / males

b.      Foreign citizens

c.       Help foreign citizen

d.      Don’t fleece foreigners

e.      Keep the roads clean

      We need to salvage ourselves  from the mess or the hole we have dug ourselves into.